Iraq, Under Pressure, Pledges Cooperation

January 21, 2003|By Ian Fisher The New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq bowed Monday to demands from the two top arms inspectors from the United Nations for more complete cooperation, as inspectors visited to warn that time was running short for sidestepping war with the United States.

Iraq's late-hour concessions appeared aimed at a crucial report that the inspectors are scheduled to deliver to the Security Council on Jan. 27. U.S. officials say that report will be one major gauge of President Saddam Hussein's willingness either to disarm or to prove unequivocally that he already has done so.

Monday's concessions seemed timed to try to convince U.N. members, particularly Europeans wary of any U.S. strike, that Iraq is willing to compromise and that the inspections should be given more time.

To some degree, Iraq seemed to score a few points Monday.

"There are a number of points which otherwise would have been negative" in the report that now will count in Iraq's favor, Hans Blix, the chief U.N. inspector for biological and chemical weapons, said at the end of a two-day visit to Baghdad.

But he cautioned, "This is a big report and there are many other matters in it."

In a later interview, Blix gave Iraq credit for "positive steps" on easing the day-to-day business of searching for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

But he said the broader substance of the inspections, proof that Iraq has destroyed biological and chemical weapons and has abandoned its nuclear program, remains unsettled.

These broader questions, however, were not were not on the agenda of this visit. It focused on the inspections themselves, which resumed in November under threat of war from the United States.

The previous inspections ended in 1998.

In the days leading up to the visit of Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, his counterpart at the United Nations for nuclear weapons, the two men had complained about several shortcomings in the Iraqis' cooperation with inspections.

After two days of talks, including with Taha Yassin Ramadan, a senior aide to Hussein, the Iraqis gave on almost every front, as outlined Monday in a 10-point agreement.

The Iraqis said they would launch their own investigation and a further search for 122mm warheads that deliver chemical weapons.

Twelve such weapons, not declared previously to the United Nations, were discovered on Thursday.

Then Sunday night, Iraq admitted to uncovering four more. U.S. officials have called the discoveries of the warheads "troubling."

The Iraqis also agreed not to follow U.N. helicopters into the "no-fly zones" in the north and south patrolled by U.S. and British warplanes.

An inspection mission on Saturday was scrubbed after the Iraqis insisted on sending their own helicopters along with U.N. helicopters to the north. From now on, Iraqi officials who accompany inspectors will be permitted on U.N. helicopters.

The document also tackled one of the most sensitive issues for the Iraqis; interviews with their scientists, who have not been willing to speak with inspectors about weapons programs. Monday's agreement says that scientists who are asked for interviews in private and without government "minders" will be "encouraged to accept this," though there is concern about retribution to the scientists and their families if they do.

"It is in our interest to answer questions relevant to Iraq's programs, past programs, in that Iraq is clean," Amir al-Saadi, a top scientific aide to Saddam, said.